Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cooking apparatus, or combined cooking machine, notably for professional use in collective kitchens
In the present state of the art, three main types of professional cooking utensils are used mainly in communities or restaurant kitchens. These utensils are essentially saucepans, or cookers, frying-pans and deep fryers.
These various types of utensils are mostly used as a function of the specific nature of the food to be cooked. Thus, saucepans are implemented primarily for boiling, frying-pans for all types of oil frying, and deep fryers for cooking food in predetermined amounts of oil or fat.
Various inconveniences are observed in the use of the above-mentioned cooking utensils and according to the present state of the cooking art.
In fact, the use of three different types of cooking utensils leads in most cases to an unnecessary and excessive cluttering of collective kitchens, considering the fact that only a few utensils are used simultaneously, and that some of them are used only episodically.
Moreover, in the present state of the art, each one of the above-mentioned cooking utensils is characterised by a number of inherent inconveniences. Thus, saucepans for boiling food, as hitherto known in community kitchens, consist mostly of a relatively deep container, compared with its horizontal cross-section. Thus, difficulties are usually experienced when cleaning these large saucepans. Moreover, to facilitate the cleaning, washing and emptying of relatively large saucepans these are connected through their bottom to draining conduits prone to frequent cloggings, or to open undesiredly and thus allow the contents to escape.
Furthermore, in most instances saucepans and deep fryers are laid directly on heating elements brought to relatively high temperatures. As a result, the food tends to adhere strongly to the bottom of these utensils and to be spoiled due to excessive burning. Thus, saucepans and deep-fryers as now in current use, notably in collective or community kitchens, are scarcely suited for preparing fragile dishes such as milk foods, unless a double saucepan or like device is used for preventing the food from burning and adhering strongly to the bottom, however at the cost of a loss of energy and/or cooking efficiency.
Considering modern deep-fryers of the type now in general use in collective or community kitchens, these utensils comprise in most cases a frusto-conical section at their base, according to the so-called `cold area` principle. Under these conditions, the oil is heated directly to a high temperature notably by means of electric resistances and is therefore rapidly spoiled, thus building up eventually in the cold or decantation area a particularly noxious deposit consisting of carbonised oil and fried food particles.